WB ready to issue another loan for TANAP

World Bank (WB) is ready to issue an additional loan for the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in case a request is made by the Azerbaijani government, Naveed Hassan Naqvi,WB country manager for Azerbaijan, said in the exclusive interview with Trend.

He noted that the government hasn’t made such a request yet. Nonetheless, WB is ready to participate in the project in the future, added Naqvi.

In late 2016, the WB Board of Directors allocated $800 million for this project: $400 million for the Southern Gas Corridor CJSC (Azerbaijan) and $400 million for BOTAS (Turkey).

To date, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA, a part of the WB Group) is at the final stage of providing a loan guarantee of $1.2 billion for TANAP, said the WB official.

TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and after completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline's construction it will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.

The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers, with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.